I Did Not Keep Your Letters

I read them,

And then I threw them in the trash

But make no mistake, I read them.

I swallowed them whole.

I filled my eyes with every word,

I sewed them in patterns

Into my flesh of my body,

At night I wake to entertain the ghosts

Lounging in my bedroom

With impromptu recitations

Of your letters, of your thoughts,

Of the shape of you in words.

But I could not keep your letters.

I could not let them languish

In a dusty box, fermenting

Into poisons in the closet dark.

I could not let them lie in wait,

Like coiled paper vipers

Ready to strike the hand that strays

Too far and stirs the den.

Author: Gabriel Gadfly.

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